Committee Decisions

28 COM 15A.16

Tipasa (Algeria)

The World Heritage Committee,

1. Commending and congratulating the State Party for the steps taken to enhance the protection of the property, and notably for having established a plan aiming at the relocation of the families presently living within the property and for having repaired the roofing of the storages,

2. Considering, however, that further action is required to ensure the full safeguarding of the property,

3. Strongly encourages the State Party to pursue its efforts towards the protection of Tipasa and, to enable the Committee to consider the possible removal of the property from the World Heritage List in Danger, to implement the remaining steps indicated in the recommendations made by the Committee at its 27th session and contained in Decision 27 COM 7A.17, and in particular:a) the immediate delimitation of the official perimeter of the World Heritage property and its buffer zone, based on the existing archaeological studies, and the issuing of a temporary official decree freezing all constructions within those boundaries;

b) the provision of a timeframe with regard to the plan established for the relocation of approximately 100 families presently living within the perimeter of the property, in consultation with them and with the local authorities;

c) the strengthening of the human and financial resources of the local Inspectorate, providing it with an annual operational budget (excluding staff and running costs), if possible equivalent to US$50,000;

d) the introduction of urgent preventive conservation measures for mosaics and other exposed structures, including more effective visitor control;

e) the adoption of a legal text on the "protection and presentation of archaeological sites and their buffer zones" and the elaboration of a plan that establishes the construction, architecture, urban-planning and land use regulations for the Tipasa site, in consultation with the World Heritage Centre;

f) the preparation, in the above framework, of a Management Plan for the property, also in consultation with the World Heritage Centre.

4. Requests the State Party to submit a report to the World Heritage Centre by 1 February 2005, on the progress achieved on the above recommendations for review by the Committee at its 29th session, in 2005;

5. Decides to retain the property on the List of World Heritage in Danger.